Rallying call!

It has come to
our notice that more and more people are receiving our information
from the website alone, and thus forgoing the small cost
of subscribing to Share International magazine.

Not everyone
can, or does, use the internet, and it is essential to have
an outer, physical expression, which can display with photographs,
the events of which we speak. That means there has to be
a magazine, which of course requires a lot of work from volunteers,
and a lot of money to produce. There may be a notion that
Hierarchy dishes out money for this work, but it is not the
case. Subscriptions to Share International are an
essential part of maintaining our work and reaching the public.
The cost of the subscription is kept as low as possible,
the magazine is not subsidised by advertisements and printing
and postal charges are mounting all the time.

Surely we would
all agree that all those who seriously believe in this work
would want to support the magazine, whether or not they read
the information on the internet.

Thank you for
your support.

The Master's
article for Share International magazine,

October 2010

Earth transformed

by the Master , through Benjamin Creme, 13 September 2010

In some twenty years from now, any visitor to Earth
would be amazed by the transformation that he would find in every aspect of
our lives. The best of the past will have been preserved but a new and vigorous
beauty will prevail everywhere, and a new relationship will have been established
between people and the environment in which they live. Gone for ever will be
the slums and hovels in which millions today eke out a ‘living’.
A new pride in ‘Man’ will generate an equal concern for men’s
leisure and social activities, and lead gradually to a new understanding of
man’s essential needs. New technology will free countless millions from
the drudgery of repetitive work; the demand for knowledge in every field will
open wide the doors of colleges, factories and farms alike, and a new enthusiasm
for learning will manifest throughout the world. Thus will men understand better
the underlying purposes of our incarnational experiences and so will grow the
needed control of our physical, astral and mental equipment. This will lead
men to the door of Initiation and thus to perfectionment.

Thus will men return anew to the age-old Path to
Perfection and, freed from the glamours and errors of the past, tread once
more the way of sacrifice, of renunciation of all that hinders the highest
understanding and light. Man has strayed far from this simple path, sidetracked
by a gross materialism which has lured him to the very edge of disaster. But,
as men will find, their eternal divinity has, once more, asserted itself and
drawn man back from the brink.

A growing number of people, everywhere, are beginning
to sense this to be true, and to awaken to the task of transformation. In this
way, they find their own sense of responsibility enhanced, and respond accordingly.
Thus are the workers of the future found and thus too does the world change
for the better.

Steadily

Quietly as yet, but steadily, does Maitreya work
to potentize this process. His beneficent energies act like yeast to raise
the aspiration and strengthen the resolve of all who can respond. These are
many, and so is built a great army of workers in the light, the light that
will transform the world and ensure the future for all men.

Questions and Answers

Q. How have people responded to Maitreya’s
television interviews – has it been better or worse than was expected?
[Question asked at Benjamin Creme’s lecture in San Francisco, USA,
August 2010.]

A. My Master has said that it has been somewhat
better than was expected. He makes people think, and they have thought deeply
about what He says. He says it in a very quiet way, without flamboyance, without
any unnecessary display. They see Him as an ordinary man. He does not want
to frighten off the very people He wants to help….

Q. Floods, droughts, fires, mud-slides, volcanoes – the
upheaval and destruction in the world today – seem to have reached
a new high level. Is this true? And is it all due to the karma of the particular
country involved?

A. Humanity is going through a period of great stress
and disequilibrium. The devas who control the forces of the environment are
forced out of equilibrium, hence the upheaval and destruction. Some of this
destruction does indeed result from karma of particular countries.

Q. Brazil is preparing to build a huge hydro-electric
dam in an area of the Amazon; its construction will cost indigenous people
their homes and their environment. A large area of the forest will be irreparably
destroyed. Our planet is dependent on rainforests; would this be a case where
the Masters could intervene to save the forests?

A. No, that would be an infringement of humanity’s
freewill and would never happen. It is really a case for a decision by the
United Nations. Brazil is enormous and there are surely less destructive areas
for such a dam.

Q. Indian activists have just succeeded in preventing
the building of a large dam on the River Ganges; were the activists right
to fight against a scheme which would, after all, bring them many benefits?

A. Yes. It is a question of weighing the benefits
against the destruction.

Q. Certain countries are determined to stop
immigration and to that end they build walls to keep would-be illegal immigrants
from entering, or they round up and deport people already settled. It is
just over 20 years ago that the Berlin Wall came down thanks to people power.
What can be done to prevent governments from building separation walls and/or
deporting people in large numbers?

A. By the same method: people power!

Q. If people have ideals but do not act on them
what can be done to rid us of complacency which humanity seems to suffer
from?

A. Indeed. Complacency is the disease….
The answer to the economic problem is the redistribution of the resources of
the world. This would create universal justice and, therefore, peace. It is
the only way to peace.

Q. Can spaceships be shot down by our weapons?
Do spaceships ever crash?

A. Spaceships cannot be shot down by our weapons
because each ship has around it a magnetic field which rejects every weapon;
it can put weapons off course. The spaceships are impenetrable. They are literally
invulnerable; however, several times in the past the Space People have sacrificed
themselves in a simulated crash of their vehicle such as the Roswell incident….

Q. What can humanity do to stop the rise of
terrorism and destruction? [Question asked at Benjamin Creme’s lecture
in Los Angeles, USA, August 2010.]

A. Terrorism, according to the Masters, is basically
the result of injustice….
Terrorism is becoming more and more sophisticated.
You cannot fight it by war because you do not know where it is coming from – it
could come out of any country in the world.

Letters
to the Editor

– a selection

Conference call

Dear Editor,

On 7 and 8 August 2010 I was at the Exopolitics
UFO Conference in Leeds, UK, to promote my book about George Adamski, sharing
my stall with local co-workers to promote Benjamin Creme’s new book, The
Gathering of the Forces of Light – UFOs and their Spiritual Mission.

Saturday afternoon, at around 3.30pm, while most
of the conference attendees were in the auditorium listening to a talk, there
were only some vendors in the hall where the stalls were set up, including
myself and two members of the Leeds group. I was sitting with my back towards
the entrance hall so I couldn’t see if people were coming in or not.
Nonetheless, when I heard someone had just arrived, it felt like he had appeared
out of nowhere.

A middle-aged man, about six-foot tall, made his
presence known loud and clear as he walked by, in between our stall and the
one opposite us. He sat down on the empty chair on the other side of the stall
from me as if the chair had been placed there for him, leaning his right arm
on his cane, exclaiming with the grandest smile on his face: “I’m
late!” as if we were the audience who had been waiting for him. He explained
that he had had difficulty getting to the venue.

I find it difficult to accurately describe the joy
and happiness the man exuded. He was wearing a blue shirt over a light blue
T-shirt, jeans and black shoes. We offered him a flyer about Benjamin Creme’s
new book but he politely turned it down, saying with the biggest smile: “I’m
not big on books.”

He then proceeded to talk about some of his experiences….

Was this joyful conference-goer, who didn’t
go to the conference, someone special?

G.A., Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that
the man was the Master Jesus.)

Look up!

Dear Editor,

On five separate occasions between the beginning
of July and late August 2010, I saw a bright white glowing object passing over
the house and garden where I live, lower than most planes and moving perfectly
silently and peacefully in a straight line. It was always bright white, spherical,
and travelling in roughly the same trajectory (towards east London, where it
seemed to descend as if to land) and at roughly the same time (around 10pm).
On the third sighting only, however, while standing in the garden with my friend,
it was glowing bright orange until it became opaque all of a sudden with glowing
red colour in the middle. At the end of August, whilst sitting alone in the
garden and contemplating Maitreya’s emergence, I saw the same white spherical
object on two consecutive nights. I felt sure that it was Maitreya’s
Lightship each time; could you confirm if this was indeed the case?

A.W.P., Stoke Newington, London, UK.

(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that
these were all sightings of Maitreya’s Lightship.)

Smiling costs nothing!

Dear Editor,

On Tuesday evening, 10 August 2010, after a public
Transmission Meditation, I was driving home and was waiting in a group of four
lanes of cars at a red light. Due to the drizzle, visibility was poor. I could
barely see a man weaving among the lanes of cars holding a small sign made
of torn cardboard. This is a common sight at this particular intersection as
many homeless people gather there.

Intent upon the traffic light as I knew it would
soon turn green, I put my hand into my purse and extracted a bill to give to
the man. As the man approached, I rolled down my window, then realized that
I had only a $1 bill in my hand. I handed the man the bill and smiled at him.
He thanked me with great enthusiasm, smiled broadly through his thick moustache,
pointed to his sign (which I could not read) and said: “Keep smiling,
keep smiling.”

Very shortly, as the light changed and the traffic
began to move, I had the thought to look to my right. The man with the sign
was looking directly into my car, pointing to his sign with a big smile and
shouting: “Keep smiling, keep smiling.” It seemed quite an enthusiastic
response for a $1 bill and the joy of the experience has stayed with me.

M.P., San Francisco, USA.

(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that
the man was the Master Jesus.)

Support

Dear Editor,

During the 24 hour Transmission Meditation on 11/12
April 2009 in Mennorode Conference Centre in Elspeet, the Netherlands, in the
small hours of Sunday morning, there were very few people meditating and it
felt awkward to leave. About 3.30am the door opened and in the light of the
EXIT sign above the door a slender, tall man appeared, wearing a green sweater
and a backpack. He sat down and began transmitting. Did someone special join
the Transmission Meditation?

M.L., the Netherlands.

(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that
the man was the Master Jesus.)

Signs of
the time

Maitreya’s ‘star’ reported in
the media

This is a selection of this month’s
reports in Share International.

Ski, Norway – On 31 August 2010 TV2
News Channel showed a “mysterious ball of light” in the sky filmed
by Mohammed Ibrahim the previous night. It remained in the sky from 8.15pm
to 4.30am. “I could see with my naked eye how it pulsated, changed colour
and moved,” Ibrahim said. “The thought hit me as I observed it” that
it was a UFO.
The Military Air Defence did not know what it was, and nothing unusual had
registered on their radars. (Source: TV2 News Channel, Norway)

(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that
the object was Maitreya’s ‘star’.)

Maitreya’s ‘star’ as
seen in Cucuta, Colombia.

Cucuta, Colombia – A national news
programme called Caracol Noticias reported a UFO sighting in early 2010 over
the northeast city of Cucuta. Reporter Veronica Rincon interviewed three eyewitnesses.
The diamond-shaped UFO appeared on five consecutive nights, between 8.30 and
9pm, remaining still in the sky for several minutes each time. Yebrain Dussan,
who captured the extraordinary footage said: “It was really two triangles
stuck together. As I zoomed in you could see there were two triangles on top
of each other with a black line between them. As time went on the intensity
of the light it emitted seemed to get stronger.” Marisol Corte said: “I
don’t really know what to say because it was something strange. I felt
in awe of this big, impressive looking object just hanging in the sky.” Fernando
Duarte, the third witness, said that at first they did not give it much attention,
but as it kept on appearing they could see that it was something ‘real’.

The news programme has submitted the UFO footage
to the Civil Aeronautical Institute of Cucuta. (Source: Caracol Noticias, Colombia)

(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that
the object was Maitreya’s ‘star’.)

Maitreya’s ‘star’,
photographed by Essex resident Malcolm Harvey in the sky near Stansted Airport
in early August 2010.

Stansted, England – Essex resident
Malcolm Harvey and his 16-year-old son witnessed an orange light in the sky
near Stansted Airport in early August 2010, a month after a former police officer
reported seeing an orange UFO in the same area.

Harvey said: “We were turning off the B1256
(from Dunmow), onto the lane towards Bamber’s Green/Stansted Airport.
It was 10.30pm and we saw an orange, oval light in the sky above the field;
an orange glow emanated from the underneath and it was moving in an easterly
direction. It immediately caught our attention as being different to what you
would expect to see in the sky at night, so I stopped the car and we watched
it for a while. Its trajectory was not constant, it had up and down motion
to it, almost like it was hovering, and there were no other lights on it so
it could not have been a plane. I turned off the car engine to listen for sound
but it was dead quiet, so it wasn’t a helicopter either…. It disappeared
into the distance, but it was certainly the most unexplained thing that I have
ever witnessed.”

Chongqing,
China – On 15 July 2010
at around 8pm, residents in Chongqing municipality saw four objects that formed
a diamond shape in the skies above Shaping Park. The objects, three white and
one red, were visible for one hour and moved as if they belonged together.
Several eyewitnesses filmed the object and posted it on the internet. (Source:
Xinhua News Agency, China)

(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that
the objects were in fact the four ‘stars’ that herald Maitreya’s
presence.)

Okayama, Japan – Yoko Sobata, from
Okayama, Japan reports to Share International: “In early February
2010, round 4am, I saw two bright shining stars, one large and the other small,
side by side in the southern sky. The one on the right was very large and while
I was gazing at it, it turned itself around as if showing off! “Wow,
that’s interesting,” I thought. As I continued to watch, it moved
slowly sideways (toward the west) and disappeared. Then, suddenly the star
appeared in front of my eyes and gradually, slowly, moved toward the southern
sky and disappeared. I thought to myself that I finally saw Maitreya’s ‘star’ together
with Venus. By showing me two shining stars, side by side, I felt someone was
telling me: “Now you can recognize the star when you can compare it with
Venus side by side.”

(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that
it was Maitreya’s ‘star’.)

These photographs,
sent by O. S., show the rapid colour changes of Maitreya’s ‘star’ seen
over Berlin, Germany on 9 March 2010.

Jinhua Zhejiang, China – On
3 September 2010, Chinese television reported a UFO appeared in the sky,
glowing “green
light” and changing its size, witnessed by many people. (YouTube: ganjianglaoma)

(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms
that the object was Maitreya’s ‘star’.)

Dubai – On Sunday 4 July 2010 about
8 o’clock
in the evening P.M. was watching an Arabian show when a bright
star caught his attention. “It looked much brighter than Venus as I
know it and assume it might be Maitreya’s ‘star’. Can your
Master confirm my presumption?” he asks.

(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms
that the object was Maitreya’s ‘star’.)

Whitby, Ontario, Canada – “Saw this object on
three separate occasions in early July 2010 in the same location and time….
[It was a ] diamond shaped object with green outline and pulsating light
with reddish centre. It stayed stationary in the sky for almost an hour before
fading out. In order to view the object up close it is zoomed digitally 200x
so movement is by my hand NOT the object. Ruled out planet Venus or the International
Space Station. What is it?” (YouTube: jefflawford)

(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms
that the object was Maitreya’s ‘star’.)

New York, USA – Filmed over mid-Manhattan
during the night of Sunday 25 July 2010. (YouTube: GWETV)

(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms
that it was Maitreya’s ‘star’.)

Serious investigation of crop circles

British crop circle researcher Michael Glickman has written extensively about
the phenomenon, including a book entitled Crop Circles: The Bones of God. Glickman,
a professor of architecture with engineering expertise, has spent 17 years
investigating crop circles.

In a recent BBC Radio 4 interview Glickman recalled that when he first stepped
inside a crop circle in 1990, he knew without doubt that it “was beyond
human agency”. While he himself believes that they are most likely from
a “superior intelligence”, he argues that we are unfortunately
in “an era of scepticism” which only looks for concrete facts and
evidence without any understanding of other possible explanations. He is affronted
by the “mindless trivializations” that the crop circles have received
and feels passionately that the phenomenon is worthy of our “profoundest
respect”. He added: “We are now seeing patterns of such intricacy
it would take at least 12 lace-making nuns from Belgium to put in place!”

Asked if artists were making them Glickman replied: “I don’t know
what is going on, but crop circles have been recorded in more than 50 countries
over the last 25 years. There have been something of the order of 6,000 events,
and the elaboration and precision and beauty is simply breathtaking. If there
is this team of artists, they are amazing, because they produce a level of
innovation and inventiveness each year which surpasses the previous season
and they are also enormously secret and enormously gifted … Whenever
there is a truly man-made formation, a hoax, whenever one is commissioned for
an advertising campaign, for instance, they are so crummy it is unbelievable!… I
have been an architect, worked in engineering and also special effects, and
product development. I used to pride myself on thinking I knew how everything
on the surface of the planet was made.” Glickman added that the crop
circles are so exquisite and painstakingly precise, and made in seconds in
absolute silence, that it is “unthinkable it is done by humans”.

Asked who he thought was making the circles Glickman said that a superior
intelligence, more evolved than us, was “gently pushing love letters
under the door to humanity”. He stated that this gentle, loving approach
to humanity was more effective than the way any government would act. (Source:
BBC, UK)

Three very large, bright UFOs were seen and filmed over Amsterdam West, the
Netherlands, on 13 September at about 10pm. Amsterdam West is the location
of the Meervaart Theatre where Benjamin Creme’s public lecture was held
on Wednesday 22 September 2010.

It has been confirmed that the spacecrafts were from Mars and that their sighting
in the vicinity of the venue where Mr Creme will be speaking was not coincidental.

Taken at a talk by Benjamin Creme at the Share International
US Conference in San Francisco, USA, on 15 August 2010, this photograph shows,
in the left corner, a blessing from Maitreya. At the same time Mr Creme was
being overshadowed by Maitreya. Sent by A. S.

Taken in San Francisco after the US Transmission
Meditation Conference in August 2006, this photograph shows J. Y.
from Edmonton and D. S. from Montreal, Canada. A light blessing
on the photograph is from the Master Jesus.

From our own correspondents

Muhammad Yunus — building social business

Serving humanity’s most pressing
needs

Book review by Cher Gilmore – a short
extract

Muhammad Yunus has made a tremendous impact on the
world since 1976 by creating and developing the idea of microcredit – making
small loans to the poor, especially women, which enable them to lift themselves
out of poverty through their own efforts. In fact, together with the bank he
founded, Grameen Bank, he was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for this work, described
beautifully in his book, Banker to the Poor.

Microcredit as an approach to relieving poverty
has now spread around the world, and microcredit programs are widely offered
not only by banks but other organizations as well. Meanwhile, Yunus’ efforts
to find and implement new ways to end poverty have also expanded. In his latest
book, Building Social Business, he presents a much broader concept – a
new form of capitalism that could fundamentally change our economic system
and potentially have a dramatic impact on society.

Profit-driven capitalism, Yunus believes, fails
largely because it does not acknowledge the complexity of human nature, which
includes selfless motives as well as the selfish ones so finely honed and universally
encouraged by our current economic system. He observes that “our government
regulations, our educational systems, our social structures are all based on
the assumption that only selfish motivations are ‘real’ and deserve
attention…. We assume that for-profit businesses are the chief source
of human creativity and the only way to address society’s problems. And
even as our problems get worse, we fail to question the underlying assumptions
that helped create those problems in the first place.”

In order to correct this flaw in our economic theory
and the resulting social and environmental problems it creates, Yunus posits
that we need two different kinds of businesses: one whose purpose is personal
gain, and another that is completely dedicated to helping others. The latter
he calls ‘Social Business’, like some, which he defines as a company
dedicated entirely to achieving a social goal by using business methods, including
the creation and sale of products or services.

There are two types of social business. The first
type is a non-loss, non-dividend company devoted to solving a social problem
and owned by investors. That is, the company is designed to make a profit,
but the investors do not take the profit; they can only retrieve their initial
investment over a period of time, which they specify. All profits are reinvested
in expanding and improving the business, so the goal of making personal profit
is removed.

The second type of social business is a profit-making
company owned directly by poor people themselves – or indirectly through
a trust dedicated to a pre-defined social cause. Because profits flowing to
poor people are alleviating poverty, such a business would by definition be
helping to solve a social problem. Grameen Bank, which is owned by the poor
people who are its customers and depositors, is an example of this type.

Because social business is a new concept, but resembles
other experimental business models or terms currently in use, Yunus spends
some time differentiating it from other approaches. A social business as he
conceives it is not to be confused, for instance, with a non-profit organization,
because it does have owners and investors – even though they do not earn
a profit or dividend or any other financial benefit....

(For the full review please see October 2010 Share International magazine.)

For more information on social business, or to link
up with others interested in the topic, visit: www.grameencl.com

Muhammad Yunus: Building Social Business: The
New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs. Public
Affairs, 2010. ISBN: 978 1586488246.

Voice of the People

India: victory for anti-dam protests

For the third year in a row, one of India’s
most eminent scientists, Professor AD Agarwal, has carried out a “fast-unto-death” in
protest against the 600 megawatt Loharinag Pala hydropower project in Uttarakhand,
India. In 2009 project construction stopped after Professor Agarwal came close
to death on the 38th day of his fast, only to resume a year later.

The Loharinag Pala project is located on the Bhagirathi
River, the source stream of the Ganges River. A large number of religious leaders
protested against the proposed dam because the Ganges system is considered
holy by the Hindus.

On 20 August 2010 a group of ministers, led by the
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, announced they would scrap the project completely.
As part of the decision, the government created India’s first dam-free
zone in the ecologically sensitive area, through which the river will flow
freely for 135 kilometres. Professor Agarwal has called off his fast as environmental,
religious, and social justice groups rejoice at the news. (Source: The
Economic Times, India)

Israeli actors take a stand

Over 60 actors, playwrights and directors have signed
a letter to Israel’s culture minister Limor Livnat refusing to take part
in productions by six leading theatre companies at a new cultural centre in
the West Bank settlement of Ariel. The letter states: “We want to express
our dismay with the intention of the theatres’ managements to perform
in the new auditorium in Ariel and hereby declare that we will refuse to perform
in the city, as in any other settlement.” They also declare that the
theatre companies should “pursue their prolific activity inside the sovereign
territory of the state of Israel within the boundaries of the Green Line”.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the
country was under attack by the international community – including economic,
academic and cultural boycotts – and “the last thing we need at
this time … is a boycott from within”.

Leading Liberal Israeli commentator Gideon Levy
supported the actors’ view. He wrote in the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz: “There
is a moral difference between appearing here and appearing there in the heart
of an illegal settlement … built on a plot of stolen land, in a performance
designed to help settlers pass their time pleasantly, while surrounded by people
who have been deprived of all their rights.” (Source: The Guardian,
UK)

“We should listen to the world’s
poorest citizens”

A “high level meeting”, organized by
the Spanish International Development Co-operation Agency (AECID) and international
news agency Inter Press Service (IPS), was held in the context of the Foreign
Ministry’s Spanish Co-operation Week between 6-11 September 2010 in Madrid.

The theme of the meeting was ‘Post-Crisis
World: Effects on developing countries and their media impact’. Uruguayan
writer and journalist Eduardo Galeano rounded off the event with his speech, ‘Deadly
sins of our upside down world’, which was streamed live in Madrid.

The gathering was attended by personalities and
journalists from countries of the South, and among its goals was debating the
role of development aid in overcoming the global financial crisis.

In a special guest lecture, Galeano referred to
examples of absurd expenditures such as the Berlin Wall, built in 1961 to divide
that German city in two and demolished in 1989. He also said the wall recently
constructed by Morocco in the territory it occupies in Western Sahara “is
60 times bigger than the Berlin Wall”.

Galeano also mentioned other walls, like the one
built by the United States along its border with Mexico in an attempt to keep
migrants out, Israel’s barrier in the West Bank, and Spain’s wall
separating its enclaves in Ceuta and Melilla from Morocco.

The Uruguayan writer said that we should listen
to the poorest citizens in the world to see how they would solve the most impending
problems; problems that, according to Galeano, “are the capital sins
of a world upside down”. He added that “it is not a matter of stating
that blacks are better than whites or that women are better than men, because
we are all capable of the best and of the worst. It is a matter of having equal
opportunities to demonstrate who we really are”. Galeano added that we
should acknowledge the fact that current diversity is a positive factor, because
our world is not monolithic. “That’s why setting up walls like
the one separating Morocco from Sahara, Israel from Palestine or the US from
Mexico is conducive to isolation and conflict. We should not be afraid. Many
people and governments are interested in the culture of fear because creating
an enemy sells arms and justifies indiscriminate violent action”. Galeano
also questioned the capacity of the United Nations to guarantee world peace,
since the Security Council and its veto power are crippling any positive action.
(Source: El Diario Exterior, Spain)

Wise words

Desmond Tutu: “We are one community”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate, has
been called “a symbol of love and forgiveness”, in spite of having
witnessed the darkest side of humanity, especially during the Truth and Reconciliation
hearings in South Africa.

The Archbishop was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 in
May 2010, on the publication of his new book, Made for Goodness: and why
this makes all the difference. This intimate and inspirational book, which
he has written with his daughter Mpho, herself an Episcopal priest, seeks to
explain “why we can find hope and joy in the world’s darkest moments
by realizing that we were made for goodness, that we are wired so that goodness
will win in the end.”

Although in his interview, when discussing the current
corruption levels in South Africa, Archbishop Tutu expressed his disapproval,
he nevertheless pointed to the key quality which prevented a descent into violence
at the ending of apartheid: “There always is this thing, which is difficult
to put into your language, that we call ubuntu, the sense of what
it means to be a human being, that my humanity is caught up in your humanity.
If I dehumanise you, then whether I like it or not, I am in that process dehumanised.”

Asked what his top priority would be were he advising
the government, he said:

“If I were to advise political leaders everywhere,
it’s the fact that until we recognize that we have got one world, there
is no jumping off, we have got this one world and we are not ever going to
have the kind of security people look for. You certainly are not going to get
it from the barrel of a gun. America has one of the most sophisticated defence
systems which was made obsolete by a wire cutter. We are one community. And
once we acknowledge that, we know therefore that it is obscene to spend the
amount that we spend on defence when a very minute fraction of that would ensure
that everybody everywhere had enough to eat, had clean water to drink – I
mean, we are silly!”

Touching on the role of Western governments in Afghanistan
he questioned:

“Have they succeeded? All you are doing is
you are building up a resentment; it would be maybe Moslems who say, why are
you clobbering those, and the Moslems around the world get upset. It would
also be those we call the developing world who say the developed world makes
the rules by which we play the game and they are also the referee in that game
and that is building up an anger, a resentment, that now and again expresses
itself.”

However, it is impossible for Archbishop Tutu to
remain gloomy for long. Explaining the title of his new book, Made for
Goodness, he said:

“Doing wrong is wrong. It actually does not
give you the satisfaction you thought it would.” (He laughs heartily.) “The
aid workers, who come most of them from very well-to-do parts of the world,
and they themselves are generally people who could have lived quite comfortably,
quite safely, they go to Darfur where they are at risk. Why? The world does
not acknowledge them usually. Yet some of them have gone not once, but twice
or maybe thrice. Why? It is because we are created for goodness, we
really are.”